Symphogear's Foundation
by ihavenocluehowthissiteworkslol
Summary: S.O.N.G can (not) into space
1. Bataille d'Espace

**Blurb**

S.O.N.G's war was over. The super-villains were defeated, and no more earth-threatening events would occur. Just like that, peace on Earth was maintained, would be maintained. But humanity's struggle was far from over. Energy demands were rising, along with the population. Humanity turned its eyes towards the other planets—and S.O.N.G would take the lead.

In the wake of their beautiful display in averting the global crises, the world called for S.O.N.G to generate power through Phonic Gain. Try as they might, their methods were inefficient and placed a great burden on the Symphogear users. Out of options, they looked towards the Frontier Shard that had been sent into space.

But after collecting its contents, the research party suddenly faced a new threat. A sudden and inexplicable attack shook the ship. Would they be able to uncover the Frontier's secrets? This is the story of S.O.N.G's fight to embark into space.

 **Bataille d'Espace**

Gelbin Ims held tightly onto the harness holding him in place. He wasn't of the strongest constitution, and the weightless sensation of spaceflight made him feel rather ill-at-ease. From about him came the excited murmur of the rest of the research crew led by Dr. Dienheim. Ims felt the harness press against him lightly—the minute force of deceleration, the first sign of their destination, the Earth-Moon Lagrangian Point 1. The excitement rose, cresting as the ship shook slightly into a stop, before ebbing away slowly as preparations to head out were made.

Ahead of them an airlock opened, let through six figures fully clad in protective gear, and closed itself again. The tension around him was palpable, rising like a pot about to boil over. After a few drawn-out minutes, report reached them: the room remained pressurized, the air breathable. Heaving a sigh of relief, the men and women aboard loosened themselves and, nearly tripping over themselves in the process, rushed out the now-open airlock.

Ahead of them stood the six Symphogear users that had scouted the area. Beyond them, the grand interior of the Shard that had broken off the Frontier years ago sprawled out. Stone walls lined with glowing channels encapsulated a small pool of unknown liquid, in the center of which stood a small altar. The location remained undisturbed from when the body of Professor Nastassja was retrieved from it years prior. The researchers gaped in awe at the view. Ims' face showed an expression of almost-childlike wonder, betrayed only by the slight creases that revealed his middling age.

A short while had passed until finally Elfnein herself emerged from the group and turned to face them. With a sign from her, the gathered scientists disbanded to various positions within the hall. A probe was released from the shuttle they came on to record the outside surface of the Shard. Only after Elfnein had walked a few paces forward did Ims manage to shake himself from his wonder and start following her. Ims had joined S.O.N.G a long time ago, when he had been a good bit younger. He was around when Elfnein took on the deceased Carol's last names, and also when she published the papers that kick-started the science of alchemy. Without Carol's powers, Elfnein too had grown since then. Somewhere along the way, he reminisced, he became somewhat of a right-hand man for her.

They quickly arrived at the altar at the center of the room. Before them, four flattened crystalline pillars stood in a half-circle, each displaying various images and glyphs. In the middle of them laid an orb half the size of a man, recessed a third of the way into the floor. This, evidently, was the central control panel of the Shard. Elfnein quickly got to the matter at hand.

'What do you think of it, Ims?'

'Quite amazing, naturally.' What else could he say? 'Though,' he remarked, 'it's a bit plainer than I had expected.'

'Well! Not quite sure what you did expect then,' said Elfnein in response. She couldn't help laughing a bit. 'Though, as I expect you understand, the devil here is in the details.'

'Of course,' Ims agreed, then grinned slightly, 'I'm not quite sure what I expected myself. But indeed there is no doubt that all is more than it appears.'

'If you have no other direct observations, then,' she continued while giving him an inquiring glance, 'I suppose we may as well start immediately. I know I have none at this moment.'

Ims only gave a curt nod in response. With that exchange, the researchers' work began in earnest. They all started documenting anything they could find, each group in their own area. Then, one group moved over to the next, the group there onto another, all around until everyone was in a new position. Meanwhile, the Symphogear users scurried around, carrying with them both digital storage volumes and refreshments for the researchers. It wasn't until hours later, when everything had been double-checked, triple-checked, that they dared take a break.

Afterwards came the second step. It would only be after thoroughly documenting everything that they would dare experiment with the mechanisms, as a matter of course. This time, the team moved as a group. None of them dared be reckless. Far more than fearing putting themselves into danger, they feared that any action of them would destroy valuable data. The Symphogear users felt quite tense. They could only hope nothing unexpected happened.

In the end, the data collection went without a hitch, and the unexpected tension wasn't resolved until the group boarded the shuttle again and set course for Earth. During the time they worked, the shuttle's probe had made a dozen rounds around the Shard.


	2. God's Message

**God's Message**

An alarm echoed in the interior of the space shuttle as it entered Earth's atmosphere. A voice, carried through the ship's intercom, soon followed up. 'Communications from the S.O.N.G headquarters,' came the message, 'unconfirmed hostiles approaching the spacecraft at some distance. Transferring comms to Symphogear team. Everyone else, be alert.' The six Symphogear users put their hands to their earpieces. 'Large swarm of aerial enemies detected near you,' Commander Kazanari's familiar voice said. 'Estimated time until collision, one minute. Standby and wait for further orders.'

No time was wasted as they went out. In a single breath, the six donned their gears and went on top the ship. Hibiki immediately called out positions, 'Chris, set up in the center. Tsubasa, Kirika, left and right wingtips. Shirabe, Maria, left and right, halfway to the middle.' Finishing her instructions, she leapt up to the nose, 'I'll handle the front!'

The six didn't have to wait long for the enemy to appear. Seeing them swarming out from behind the clouds, a wave of recognition washed over the Symphogear users.

'Alca-Noise!? Commander, what's the meaning of this?' Tsubasa, on the left side, asked.

The reply came hurriedly, 'That's what we're trying to figure out! For now, stay alert! Don't let another K2 Incident happen!'

Soon, the Noise were upon them. Bullets, missiles, circle saws, daggers; beams, sword flashes, and sickles of light; all kinds of projectiles flew out from the top of the ship. Instantly, unnatural shrieks and red smoke filled the surrounding air as the closest Noise met the attacks. However, the more Noise they attacked, the more Noise appeared.

In a short moment, the shuttle dove into a bank of high-altitude clouds. The six steeled themselves against the cold as water washed over them. In truth, the Gears provided some functions to assist with that. How else could they survive at this altitude! However, there was a limit to what they could do on such short notice. For the rest, the users would simply have to tough it out themselves. There was also the reduced visibility from the clouds, but it didn't form a problem in this situation, as the nearest two or three layers of Noise could still be seen and accurately targeted.

Who would have thought that when they exited the cloud bank, rather than less, there would be even more Noise! 'Sh*t!' Chris immediately shouted, 'They were even waiting to ambush us here!' The sky around them was filled with the shifting, bright colors characteristic of the Noise. A shout came from the side, 'There's too many! Thin them out!' Maria shouted from the left side. A line of daggers immediately flew out from the Airgetlam, turned in mid-air, and started flying around the swarm of Noise, slashing and firing lasers. Chris didn't react slowly either. She quickly fired two missiles upwards, which split up and showered the Noise with explosions. The effects were immediate and about a third of the Noise died on the spot, filling the air above with red ash.

At the same time, directly overhead a cloud split, and a Giant Noise equipped with a conical drill on its underside descended towards the ship. The remains of the destroyed smaller Noise hid it from sight for the middle of the shuttle, but it could be seen quite clearly from the side. 'Chris, out of the way!' This shout came from the left side. She didn't question the reason and directly leaped backwards. Without delay, Shirabe rushed in from the side to where she stood a moment ago. Shul Shagana extended a saw horizontally and detached the arm holding it in place on the upper side. The saw became like a CD or vinyl record, laying on and spinning around a single point. She lifted it overhead and accurately caught the descending Noise in the center, matching the saw's speed to the drill's rotation. This way, even though it still pressed down, the friction from the threads on the side was at least negated. Seeing this, Hibiki jumped in from the front to help support her. After a moment's coordination, everyone else threw an attack at the Noise, covering it head to toe in explosions. 'It's all yours!' Amidst this, Shirabe yelled as she retracted the saw. Gungnir shot up, forming a spearhead around Hibiki's gauntlet, and tyrannically pierced through the Noise. Shockwaves rocked the shuttle as the large mass disintegrated.

From start to finish, this exchange had only taken about thirty seconds. But when they looked around again, they discovered that the surrounding Noise had closed in another level and were now at some twenty meters distance from the ship. Before all of them had time to react, Tsubasa dashed across the shuttle's wings. 'All of you, duck! We'll handle this! Kirika!' She said this as she ran. Kirika reacted quickly and hooked two of Igalima's cables onto her as she passed. They all had years of experience working together, and in this kind of limited situation Kirika had already seen through her intentions. After all, Ame-no-Habakiri possessed two thrusters. Ordinarily, using these ankle-mounted thrusters to fly was incredibly complicated. Even if you could do it, it wouldn't be very fast or agile. It could be compared to trying to control a piece of paper as it tossed in the wind. However, when Igalima's cables were added as counterweight, suddenly it would be as if the piece of paper turned into a kite. The paper would be very stable and easy to maneuver. This was what Tsubasa was doing right now. In the blink of an eye, she had swung around the upper hemisphere around the shuttle three times, using Kirika as an anchor-point. The nearby Alca-Noise couldn't stand up to the combined might of the sword and scythe and were quickly and accurately dispatched.

After this, everyone returned to their positions and went back to clearing Noise, only this time, reinforcements did not appear and the remaining Alca-Noise were smoothly and effortlessly cleaned up. The whole encounter had only lasted about five minutes. Truthfully, the Alca-Noise were no match for the Symphogears. It had only been because of the initial surprise that they had ended up in such a situation. All of this was because the Alca-Noise were essentially outdated tech. They had already stopped seeing use long before S.O.N.G's fights ended. Meanwhile, the Gears had kept continuously being upgraded, and their power level was no longer the same. Furthermore, the last alchemists had long disappeared at this point. For this type of obsolete technology to appear again, there were only these questions on everyone's minds— _Why were they here?_ and _Who was their master?_


	3. Serenity Amongst the Turmoil

**Serenity Amongst the Turmoil**

Gelbin Ims stared out into the dark-blue abyss through the submarine's viewing port as he worked on his meal. The food's quality wasn't very good, but it sure was a lot better than it was when they had to go months without visiting land. Such idle thoughts went through his head as he watched various marine animals flit past, illuminated by the viewing-lamps. He'd been with S.O.N.G for some time now, but this view always felt new to him. Finally, he dumped the tray on the conveyor belt, bid farewell to some seniors, and made his way through the various corridors, elevators and sliding-doors of the ship. His destination was the other wing of the ship, or more precisely, the research branch.

Ims pressed his hand to the contact, and the doors slid open noiselessly before him. Inside he found Elfnein, bent over a console, brows furrowed in concentration. She made a small grunt to acknowledge him, but otherwise made no actions indicating that she had noticed his presence. Her hands moved quickly and precisely. On the wall in front of her was a window, and through it one could see a piece of the 'machinery' salvaged from the Frontier. All around it arms and tools moved in response to her controls, both mechanical and alchemical in nature. Elfnein worked in a flurry, moving pieces around, cutting, merging, painting conduits, bridging contacts, and other operations of the kind. Ims did not know how long she had been working like this, and neither did he know how long he had been standing there when gradually she started loosening up.

Elfnein beckoned him over to the console. A soft, turquoise light emitted from the familiar controls. Elfnein gestured towards the middle of the screen. Following her motion, Ims' eyes fell on a detail image of the piece she had been working on—direct image feedback from a camera mounted on one of the arms. Beside it was a rough schematic of the entire thing, drawn up by Elfnein. It was annotated—in many places by some multiple question marks.

'Look at this, Ims,' she said, 'and tell me if you've ever seen anything quite like it. I've finally managed to pry the thing open, but who could make anything of what's inside? It's no tech we've knowledge of. Take this, for instance.' She continued, placing her hands on the screen and manipulating the dials to move the camera. 'You'll notice this part is marked with some question-marks. I've tried near everything I could think of, but just can't find out what it is.'

'Is the whole thing like this, then?' Ims couldn't help but ask.

'Dear no, luckily not.' She replied while moving the view back over. 'These things here, they seem to be conduits. And over here…—' She continued naming components as she moved the camera over each of them.

'This, what you've done is amazing!' Ims gaped in awe.

'It's nothing too great,' she insisted, 'opening it is one thing. Finding out it's purpose and process is quite another. Far as I can figure it may be a battery of sorts, or perhaps an engine. Actually—' She stopped mid-sentence, and her face took on a new expression of excitement. 'We may be on to something here…—' Ims did not catch the rest of her words as they turned into a murmur.

He had complete faith Elfnein would be able to figure it out. She had been modest before, but he already knew quite well—other than her, none of them would have been able to even crack it open intact, let alone understand its workings.

…

'Anyway, that's more or less the situation, boss.' Ims said to Commander Kazanari who was seated diagonally from him, looking pensive. Ims took the opportunity to shovel some food into his mouth. Across the table, Chris held herself from doing the same. They were back at the mess hall. From all around them came the sound of the other crew eating their meals.

'We've damn near figured out how to transport and output energy, but it's all moot until we can power the whole system.' Ims continued, then threw a glance at Elfnein next to him.

'From what we've reverse engineered, I'm confident we can create such a system,' said Elfnein, picking up from there, 'but the difficulty lies in the fact that the tech doesn't take Phonic Gain. Not efficiently, in any case.'

Ims nodded, 'In fact, with the current efficiency, it'd be more effective to generate power through the Symphogear's output. Only, that brings with it it's own problems.'

This time it was Chris' turn to react, 'The Symphogear's output…' she said, while doing a few quick calculations in her head, 'It's probably true that would be more efficient, especially if we take the ones that generate more conventional forms of energy, like Ichaival, Airgetlam and Shul-Shagana. The main limiter is the physical strain on the user. If we take for example this ship…—' She fell silent for a bit. 'To generate enough power, even working in shifts to keep it up permanently, the stress wouldn't be small at all.' she concluded.

Genjuro sighed upon hearing this, 'Then did the situation not change at all?'

'That might not necessarily be the case, boss,' said Ims with a trace of a grin, 'Dr. Dienheim here might have some ideas about energy conversion based on the Symphogear system.'

'It's only an idea!' Elfnein argued, 'A sort of distant concept, at best.'

But Genjuro was smiling. 'In that case, do your best to work that out. If you have the time, try to see about starting work on the system that will use it.' he said to them. Clearly, Ims wasn't the only one convinced of Elfnein's capabilities.


End file.
